This design is by David Schulz, who runs Southern Cross Fibre in Australia. The pattern is just about perfect – it has a braided edge, which I love, rather than a ribbed cuff. The thumbs have gussets, which are more comfortable to wear and the pattern is so well written. The pattern includes charts for two kinds of mittens – dark/light or light/dark. Most patterns don’t do this and it is SO helpful. Thanks, David!

I used one of my all time favorite yarns, Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light. 50% wool, 50% alpaca. So toasty warm. The lining is of luscious Brushed Suri by Blue Sky Alpacas. Brushed Suri is the most incredible yarn to use in the lining of a mitten – so lofty and soft. The color I chose is called “Snow Cone” and I thought it complimented the colors of the mitten so well.

The pattern calls for a braided edge done in one color, which I think kind of loses the purpose of doing a braided edge. So I did the edge in two colors. If you do a two color edge, make sure to do a two color cast on or it won’t come out right. The two color cast on will be your set up row for the braid.

I even do the thumbs using Magic Loop

If you’ve never knitted lined mittens before, you should give it a try. They are so special and warm to wear. You can have all kinds of fun with the colors.

The pattern calls for regular Ultra Alpaca, and you say you used light? Does it still take one skein? Did the mittens turn out smaller than usual? I have a few skeins of the light and was hoping to make these, but my hands are medium to large (women’s).

Dawn: I had knit these mittens before (If you are on Ravelry, here is the link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/ItalianDishKnits/northman-mittens) and when I first knit them, the pattern called for DK weight yarn, so that’s what I used. It’s weird but he changed the pattern after that to worsted weight – don’t know why. I explain on my Ravelry page about that. So when I knit them again, I used DK again but just went up a needle size because I thought the first ones were just a tad small. Hope this helps. Can’t remember how much yarn I used but it was what the pattern called for.